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Investment strategies involving China are coming under scrutiny amid political and security-related conflicts between Beijing and major Western economies, as well as a predicted growth slowdown for the world’s second-largest economy. But Canada’s massive pension fund, among the world’s top 10 in terms of size, is sticking to plans to expand its holdings there. Mark Machin, president and chief executive of Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), sees the country’s potential to diversify h

Investment strategies involving China are coming under scrutiny amid political and security-related conflicts between Beijing and major Western economies, as well as a predicted growth slowdown for the world’s second-largest economy.

But Canada’s massive pension fund, among the world’s top 10 in terms of size, is sticking to plans to expand its holdings there.

“China is today the second-largest economy in the world, the second-largest equity market in the world, the third-largest bond market in world, and we have the ability to diversify into it,” he told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“So it’s more of a diversification call than a market call for the next few weeks or months … It’s much longer-term and it’s about diversification.”

China’s growth outlook has been dampened by weakened domestic demand and the trade war with Washington that’s hit exports. A recent Reuters poll found that the country’s growth is expected to slow to 6.3 percent this year from an expected 6.6 percent in 2018, which would be the lowest in 29 years. That figure was 6.9 percent in 2017.

The CPPIB, with $280 billion in assets under management as of last summer, plans to more than double its assets allocated to China by 2025 from a current 7.6 percent of its portfolio to up to 20 percent, it announced last August.

The Middle East’s largest public company is expanding its investments in China despite an expected slowdown in the country’s economic growth, its CEO said Monday. Investors and analysts have raised concern over China’s growth outlook, which has been dampened by weakened domestic demand and the trade war with Washington that’s hit exports. But SABIC, which is also the fourth-largest petrochemicals producer in the world, plans to keep investing in China. “I think Asia is growing and China is reall

The Middle East’s largest public company is expanding its investments in China despite an expected slowdown in the country’s economic growth, its CEO said Monday.

Speaking to CNBC during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Yousef Al-Benyan, chief executive of Saudi Arabian petrochemicals manufacturer SABIC, dismissed growing concerns about the future of the world’s second-largest economy.

“If you are a long-term player I think this is normal in any economy, they have to go through sometimes a bumpy road. And that is, I think, what we experienced with China today,” Al-Benyan told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble, referencing the ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. That, he said, “has really influenced some of the growth we expect out of China, but from a SABIC perspective we look at China as long term,” he said.

Investors and analysts have raised concern over China’s growth outlook, which has been dampened by weakened domestic demand and the trade war with Washington that’s hit exports. A recent Reuters poll found that the country’s growth is expected to slow to 6.3 percent this year from an expected 6.6 percent in 2018, which would be the lowest in 29 years. That figure was 6.9 percent in 2017.

But SABIC, which is also the fourth-largest petrochemicals producer in the world, plans to keep investing in China.

“I think Asia is growing and China is really driving this growth,” Al-Benyan said. “That is why we have improved our presence in China specifically, we are trying to put even more investment in China because we think the growth is there.”

Wednesday’s attack on U.S. forces in Syria has stoked fresh criticism over President Donald Trump’s claim that the so-called Islamic State has been defeated and has renewed debate over his decision to withdraw all troops from the war-torn country. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility. While the group has not so far offered physical evidence to support the claim, critics have been quick to link the attack to President Donald Trump’s decision last month to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria. Trump

Wednesday’s attack on U.S. forces in Syria has stoked fresh criticism over President Donald Trump’s claim that the so-called Islamic State has been defeated and has renewed debate over his decision to withdraw all troops from the war-torn country.

Around 1 p.m. local time, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a popular area of downtown Manbij, a northern Syrian city that’s been controlled by U.S.-supported Kurdish militias since it was wrested from ISIS in 2016.

Four Americans were killed — two service members, a civilian Pentagon official and a U.S. contractor — and three more injured, U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement, reportedly marking the largest single loss of American life since the counter-ISIS campaign began. Nineteen people are believed to have died in total, including civilians and local coalition partners, according to monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

ISIS quickly claimed responsibility. While the group has not so far offered physical evidence to support the claim, critics have been quick to link the attack to President Donald Trump’s decision last month to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria.

“Trump’s order was reckless and driven far more by domestic political concerns than it was by facts on the ground,” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said on Twitter Wednesday.

Trump defended the troop pullout plans on the premise that ISIS had been defeated. The decision triggered rebukes from numerous lawmakers and security experts, who warned of the extremist group’s resurgence and lamented what was seen as an abandonment of local partners.

“Sometimes reality catches up quickly with wishful thinking and political spin,” Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., told CNBC on Wednesday. “Historians will likely file Trump’s tweets announcing the ISIS defeat and U.S. Syria pullout alongside Bush’s 2003 ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech and Obama’s 2011 withdrawal from Iraq.”

An attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij has resulted in multiple casualties including U.S. troops, a senior Kurdish security official confirmed to NBC News. The security official wasn’t able to confirm the number of injured or dead. ISIS claimed responsibility in a post via its Amaq news agency but did not produce evidence in support of the claim. The attack comes less than a month after President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, on the premise

An attack in the northern Syrian town of Manbij has resulted in multiple casualties including U.S. troops, a senior Kurdish security official confirmed to NBC News.

The blast took place at 1:00 p.m. local time after a suicide bomber in civilian clothing approached coalition forces in the center of Manbij, according to the report. The security official wasn’t able to confirm the number of injured or dead. A U.S. official later told Reuters that four U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded in the blast.

ISIS claimed responsibility in a post via its Amaq news agency but did not produce evidence in support of the claim.

U.S. troops have been stationed in Manbij in support of local partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces, as part of the anti-IS coalition and as a buffer between Kurdish militias within the SDF and Turkish forces, who view the Kurdish fighters as terrorists.

The attack comes less than a month after President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, on the premise that ISIS had been defeated.

Despite a flood of criticism from lawmakers and security experts, the withdrawal process is now underway, according to the Pentagon, which has not disclosed details on a timeline or withdrawal numbers for “operational security” reasons.

Trump has been briefed on the attack in Syria, the White House said.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, also known as Masdar, has acquired stakes in two U.S. wind farms in what will be its first-ever foray into the North American market. The company, a subsidiary of Emirati investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company, on Tuesday announced its share purchase agreement to buy British developer John Laing Group’s interest in wind farms in Texas and New Mexico. While the exact dollar value of the deal has not been disclosed, Masdar’s leadership described it as

The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, also known as Masdar, has acquired stakes in two U.S. wind farms in what will be its first-ever foray into the North American market.

The company, a subsidiary of Emirati investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company, on Tuesday announced its share purchase agreement to buy British developer John Laing Group’s interest in wind farms in Texas and New Mexico. While the exact dollar value of the deal has not been disclosed, Masdar’s leadership described it as being “north of $100 million.”

The 149 megawatt (MW) Rocksprings project in Texas is home to 53 of General Electric’s 2.3MW wind turbines and 16 of its 1.72MW turbines in Val Verde County, while the Sterling project in New Mexico’s Lea County has a total installed capacity of 29.9MW provided by 13 of General Electric’s 2.3MW turbines.

Masdar Chief Executive Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi spoke to CNBC’s Dan Murphy about the move Tuesday while at Abu Dhabi’s Sustainability Week, calling the U.S. “a very important market not only for Masdar but the renewable energy world.” Last year’s conference by the same name saw $15 billion worth of deals announced.

Indeed, America saw a record 6.3 percent of its electricity generated from wind in 2017, and is home to “one of the largest and fastest-growing wind markets in the world,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The country installed over 7,000 MW of wind energy capacity in 2017, according to data from the Global Wind Energy Council, putting it behind only China in terms of new installations.

It’s been a confusing couple of weeks for U.S. allies in the Middle East. White House officials have been making the rounds in the region, reiterating the U.S. administration’s signature fierce rhetoric against Iranian geopolitical ambitions. But the message’s divergence from Trump’s own policy decision was not lost on observers and allies. “But I’m hearing from officials in the Middle East more concern about American predictability over time. They want to believe there’s this permanent shift on

It’s been a confusing couple of weeks for U.S. allies in the Middle East.

White House officials have been making the rounds in the region, reiterating the U.S. administration’s signature fierce rhetoric against Iranian geopolitical ambitions.

But the pledges of continued U.S. support directly contradict what’s been described as President Donald Trump’s isolationist drive, which in its latest manifestation saw the announcement via tweet to withdraw all American troops from Syria — the very theater that officials had previously spotlighted as key to pushing back on Iran.

“You have a tweet from the president about withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria after months of working together with our allies in the Arab world, with the interagency and State Department, Pentagon,” Fred Kempe, president of the Atlantic Council, told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. “And suddenly everything’s changed with a single tweet.”

Trump’s December decision drew a barrage of criticism from lawmakers and security experts alike, who warned that the so-called Islamic State was not completely defeated in the war-torn country and that an abrupt departure would be abandoning U.S. local partners on the ground. So Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton, among others, have been sent to reassure allies of U.S. commitment in the region — but it may be too late to quell their fears.

Pompeo laid out his framing of America’s vision for the Middle East during his speech in Cairo on Thursday. “When America retreats, chaos often follows. When we neglect our friends, resentment builds. And when we partner with enemies, they advance,” he said.

But the message’s divergence from Trump’s own policy decision was not lost on observers and allies.

“There’s a nervousness — one wants to believe that message,” Kempe said. “But I’m hearing from officials in the Middle East more concern about American predictability over time. They want to believe there’s this permanent shift on behalf of allies to stand up to Iran, there are a lot of signs that’s really there, but they’re made nervous by the Syria shift.”

OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo is largely optimistic over prospects of achieving a balanced oil market in 2019. “We are concerned with the lingering trade disputes,” Barkindo told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble while at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi Sunday. “Any measures that may impact or constrain trade may likely impact on growth and by extension on demand for energy. China is the world’s largest importer of crude, and its purchases constituted 18.6 percent of total cr

OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo is largely optimistic over prospects of achieving a balanced oil market in 2019. But if one thing keeps him awake at night, it’s the U.S.-China trade war’s potential to disrupt growth in major Asian markets that import the highest proportion of the world’s crude.

“We are concerned with the lingering trade disputes,” Barkindo told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble while at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi Sunday. “The synchronized growth that we have witnessed since the last global financial crisis that has taken this long was also due largely to the growth in international trade.”

“Any measures that may impact or constrain trade may likely impact on growth and by extension on demand for energy. At the moment, outside the U.S., China and India remain the brightest spots in terms of demand for energy. So you can imagine our concern of the lingering negotiations.”

China is the world’s largest importer of crude, and its purchases constituted 18.6 percent of total crude imports in 2017. India’s booming growth is set to see it overtake China as the country with the world’s largest demand for oil by 2024, according to a recent report by energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. But if a trade war severely hit China’s growth, it would send shockwaves through the rest of Asia and threaten crucial sources of income for OPEC’s producers.

Already, U.S. tariff pressure and dampened domestic demand have started to manifest themselves in China’s economic forecasts. Reuters reported last week, citing sources with knowledge of China’s economic policy, that the country is planning to set a lower growth target of 6 percent to 6.5 percent in 2019, compared with last year’s target of “around” 6.5 percent.

Three days of trade talks between President Donald Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts in Beijing wrapped up last week, resulting in improved sentiment across Asian markets on increased hopes of a deal. Tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated last year, putting global stock markets on edge. The U.S. announced tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while Beijing countered with its own.

At the end of last year, the Asian Development Bank said that developing Asia would meet its growth forecasts for 2019, but warned of the downside risks from rising trade protectionism. Despite the worries, Barkindo struck a hopeful tone.

“We remain cautiously optimistic that they’ll be able to overcome some of the difficulties, on the premise that both the U.S. and China want these issues resolved,” he said.

The White House requested options for a military strike against Iran last September, a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, citing current and former U.S. officials. The request, reportedly made the National Security Council led by national security advisor John Bolton, alarmed Pentagon and State Department officials, The Journal wrote on Sunday. According to the publication, it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump himself knew about the request, whether the Pentagon u

The White House requested options for a military strike against Iran last September, a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, citing current and former U.S. officials.

The request, reportedly made the National Security Council led by national security advisor John Bolton, alarmed Pentagon and State Department officials, The Journal wrote on Sunday. The Council made the move after an Iranian-aligned group fired missiles into Baghdad’s diplomatic quarter, which hosts the U.S. embassy in Iraq. No one was harmed.

According to the publication, it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump himself knew about the request, whether the Pentagon ultimately delivered military options to the White House, and if concrete attack plans against the Islamic Republic were actually formulated. But officials who spoke to the publication confirmed that the Defense Department did indeed comply with the National Security Council’s request to develop those options.

Bolton, an avid proponent of the Iraq invasion during the George W. Bush administration, has long taken one of the hardest lines against Iran in Washington and has openly supported the idea of regime change in Tehran.

A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council told The Journal: “We continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in Baghdad and our Basra consulate, and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests.”

The full report from the Wall Street Journal can be found on its website.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Sunday he’s positive OPEC and partnered nations will meet their production cut commitments to balance oil markets in 2019, despite what he described as a slower than anticipated pace by some. “We’ve already done it, we’ve done enough,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told CNBC on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, when asked what OPEC’s largest producer would do to balance markets this year. Russia was more reluctant to cut its output, as its growth is heavily depende

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Sunday he’s positive OPEC and partnered nations will meet their production cut commitments to balance oil markets in 2019, despite what he described as a slower than anticipated pace by some.

“We’ve already done it, we’ve done enough,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told CNBC on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, when asked what OPEC’s largest producer would do to balance markets this year. “Not only the kingdom but other countries, we’ve heard from the Emirates, I’ve talked repeatedly to my colleagues in Iraq, they’ve already taken action,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.

He then mentioned the performance of the largest non-OPEC producer that’s partnered with the cartel on cuts: “Russia has started, slower than I’d like, but they’ve started, and I am sure as they did as in 2017 they’ll catch up and be a positive contributor to re-balancing the market.”

OPEC members, along with several other countries, in December agreed on output cuts totaling 1.2 million barrels per day in order to stem a sinking market and support their own export-dependent economies. “OPEC plus” refers to the group’s cooperation with the non-OPEC producers like Russia and other former Soviet states, as well as Mexico. Russia was more reluctant to cut its output, as its growth is heavily dependent on robust crude exports.

Russia has initially let the Saudis shoulder the bulk of output cuts. The top OPEC ally, which in late 2016 began a cooperation agreement with Riyadh to stabilize oil prices, has often said that $60 per barrel is enough to meet its economic needs. Moscow in December said it would cut production by 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day in January, while Saudi pledged a cut of 900,000 barrels.

While North American shale may be competition for OPEC members, some crude-exporting countries in the Arabian Gulf are simultaneously taking advantage of the commodity’s ability to fuel lucrative investments beyond oil. For the United Arab Emirates’ Musabbeh al-Kaabi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum and Petrochemicals, the shale revolution has the made North American gas and petrochemicals industry very attractive, bringing competitively-priced gas feedstock to the market. The

While North American shale may be competition for OPEC members, some crude-exporting countries in the Arabian Gulf are simultaneously taking advantage of the commodity’s ability to fuel lucrative investments beyond oil.

For the United Arab Emirates’ Musabbeh al-Kaabi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum and Petrochemicals, the shale revolution has the made North American gas and petrochemicals industry very attractive, bringing competitively-priced gas feedstock to the market.

The petrochemicals firm is a major component of Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned holding company. It operates as a sovereign wealth fund with assets of more than $226 billion, and is aimed at diversifying the emirate’s economy.

“We as an investor made big investments in the last 18 months, north of $12 billion dollars, and some of these big investments are happening in North America,” al-Kaabi told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble during the Atlantic Council Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi.

This was for two simple reasons, the CEO said. “It is a big market and it is enjoying a highly competitive feedstock. So we like the business in that part of the world because of these two reasons.” Feedstock refers to raw material, such as natural gas, used in petrochemical production. Gas dominate’s the company’s business, and al-Kaabi has previously highlighted North America as the focus of a strategic shift when it comes to petrochemicals thanks to the shale revolution.

“Other parts of global energy I would say, the energy industry, the price would be set by the high cost producers going forward,” al-Kaabi added. “And who are the high cost producers nowadays? The shale producers. And we will keep monitoring what is happening in that part of the world.”